Posts by Phizzy

27

Lloyd Evans keeps doing parts on how the JWs are guilty of follwing the bible.

by mickbobcat in

i have been watching evans videos for a while.

he keeps attacking the cult for following the bible.

women are to be subservient to men.

Phizzy

steve 2, I suppose if I can find time I ought to watch one or two of L.E's vids where he criticises the Bible itself. But just to clarify what I mean by "what the bible actually says" , I do not mean the mere words, but what the Writer was trying to convey, not what some people say the writer says.

Just as an example, it would be easy to say the Bible story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows the Bible is against gay people, is that what the Writer was on about ?

As I say, I need to watch the vids, to see how deep Evan's understanding is, and if he is justified or not. Certainly any criticism of the Bible as being the Word of God etc IS justified.

17

The King of the North and the South, who are they now?

by Anony Mous in

i know several wit-lesses that to date are researching these topics.. however i haven't heard much from any publications recently about it, i think the latest refresh was ~10 years ago.

since then the power of the us has severely diminished (or at least the rhetorics about it has), russia is a small potato in modern era, the eu is a cowardly dog in the eyes of everyone and we have the rise of china which is as far as military might is concerned, a paper tiger.. we also have the rise of islam, especially since the end of the nato nation-building effort in afghanistan which is now in power in most of the middle east and africa, as well as regions of asia and growing strong in europe.. does anyone have noooo light about these developments.

is islam the king of the south?

Phizzy

The writer of Daniel made little attempt at prophecy, when he did, he failed, as when predicting the death of Antiochus 1V, .... he got it wrong, and did not realise it had actually happened as he wrote.

It is a Politco/Religious Tract for its day, which was at the very end of Antiochus' reign, circa 164 C.E., it was never intended to "point forward" to our, or any future time.

The Apocalyptic style predictions were typical of the genre, but in this case may well have been included more to mask its real intention, that of castigating the rulers of the day.

27

Lloyd Evans keeps doing parts on how the JWs are guilty of follwing the bible.

by mickbobcat in

i have been watching evans videos for a while.

he keeps attacking the cult for following the bible.

women are to be subservient to men.

Phizzy

It is surprising how many XJW's do not understand that the Bible is not to be read as the J.W org does, or as most of Christendom does.

To read it, and understand what the Writer was on about, you have to know the full information about the time in which he lived, the religious and political situation, and much much more.

On that basis, I would dispute a number of things that are taken as "givens" about what the Bible "says" in the O.P.

Nothing is plain, and should not be looked upon with a 21st Century lens when considering verses written 2000 years ago, or much longer than that.

Evans is not criticising what the Bible ACTUALLY says, but the J.W interpretation of it.

20

Did You Think The Majority of Elders Were “Qualified “?

by minimus in

jw
friends

in my opinion, in a body of elders let’s say with 7 elders , 2 or 3 were pretty much on the ball.

they were reasonable, intelligent and moderate.

the others were either extremely extreme about everything or very liberal.. did you have qualified older men or were they all lousy to you?

Phizzy

The congregation I was in as young man was totally unique. When the Elder arrangement came in, NOT ONE of the guys who had been filling positions felt that they qualified !

That was wonderfully humble of all of them. Eventually the C.O visited, and persuaded the guy who had been Congregation Servant that at least HE qualified. He had been asked to move to our Congregation to try to get it to be a bit more in line. ( he struggled with that, but at least he got the guys to wear a Tie when they were on the Platform).

After another C.O visit a few more " qualified" , but still there was a humble reluctance from some of the guys who eventually became Elders.

As the years went by we had a few more "appointed" and some of them were not just not qualified, as per the Scriptures, they were decidedly dodgy !

Very few were really qualified to perform duties that would benefit the "Flock", they were amateurs dealing with things best left to professionals.

We had a couple of good "Speakers" , by J.W standards, but in common with nearly all Congregations, Pastoral Care was virtually non-existent.

43

On the current migrant crisis

by LoveUniHateExams in

thousands of migrants have come to england this year, already beating last year's total.. some may have fled syria and other war-torn countries; others are economic migrants.. let me try to get my head around this phenomenon: migrants are relatively safe in france and other countries.

they then leave the relative safety of continental europe and risk their lives and that of their children by crossing the english channel in rubber dinghies.

there's just no fixing stupid, is there .

Phizzy

Welcome to the Forum RWAI !!! you will find yourself a voice in the wilderness methinks, but please stay and talk some sense as long as you are allowed to !

As you rightly say, this place is very full of people who do not want to listen to things that do not align with their point of view, it makes me wonder how they managed to leave the J. W Org. with that kind of rigid closed mind.

Keep up the good work !

103

I'm now turned off by this site

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

in one form or another i've been a member of this site for almost 10 years.

in the past this was a great place for debate, news and support for ex jws.

i logged on several times a day and posted several times a week.

Phizzy

Never mind Davidtwatfeatures Min, we all love and respect you, and appreciate your many Threads

I think it is possible this Site will eventually be redundant, but as long as there is a need, as long as it helps a few to free themselves from the Org. then I hope it keeps going.

What will hasten its demise is if it becomes too polarised Politically, and is not the tolerant place it used to be. Or if it degenerates in to a place where people trade personal insults. ( Mine in the first sentence was simply humorous.................. honest).

7

Hello

by allieoakley in

jw
friends

it's nice to meet you all.

i have been awake since i was a child and i am thinking about leaving jehovahs witnesses soon.

i am looking for some new friends because i know i will lose the ones i have.. my question is, how did your spouse react when you left?

Phizzy

I do think it is good advice from DOC above, to pose questions, artfully, to your husband. Done in a way that is non-threatening, as in " Do you know what I was thinking about the other day ?......"

If he is a "You should not question anything about the Org" type it may be difficult.

My personal experience was that I intended to "fade" slowly, but one night I just decided I could, in all conscience, never go back. I just left, cold. I did not know how my wife would react to this, would I lose her altogether ? I had given myself no time to prepare the ground.

Luckily she supported my decision, and left too, though she still misses the Social side of JW life after all these years. And she was slow to slough off all of her JW beliefs, which now she has done. But I was lucky.

Prepare the way as much as you can. Good Luck !

5

A suggestion to improve the site's search engine

by Disillusioned JW in

i wish the search engine of this site would gain the added feature of being able to search for exact phrases (such as by using quote marks around phrases).

that way i could find specific information on this site much more easily.

if a such a feature was available, then this site would be much more useful in finding relevant old posts..

Phizzy

I guess updating the Search facility is s lot of work, but if it can be achieved sometime, it will be greatly appreciated.

Quite often things are discussed on here anew, and I know that Brilliant Posts and often whole Threads are on here that would benefit the new guys, but they are difficult to locate at present.

7

Never expect anyone to solve a problem when their livelihood depends on that problem existing

by Simon in

imagine you were a leader of a "gender equality" group started as part of the 'metoo' movement?.

now fast-forward and you're the one trying to discredit victims who have come forward with accusations.

but not they are accusations against someone you work for.. it's a perfect example of how activists so often end up unwittingly (or quite intentionally) perpetuating the very problem they claim to be against.

Phizzy

The ones to watch are Activists who make a living by being such, problem solved, job gone. As bad are those who like the publicity and slight fame of being an Activist as much as, or even more than, the Cause itself.

Certain XJW Activists against the Org. come to mind.

We do NEED Activism on many fronts, as Governments, Corporations and Officials are loath to act where they should, or to act correctly. But Activists need to be motivated purely by a desire to see the proper outcome for their cause, not by narcissism or greed.

103

I'm now turned off by this site

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

in one form or another i've been a member of this site for almost 10 years.

in the past this was a great place for debate, news and support for ex jws.

i logged on several times a day and posted several times a week.

Phizzy

Carla's final point is good one : " Maybe it is better they are not quite as indoctrinated as the older folks? (Biblically/doctrinally speaking) or at some sort of different level? I dunno."

It is a good thing we do not have to battle hardly at all now about Doctrine, I admire all those old Posters who did, and at the time it was beneficial to many, but it must have been wearisome hard work !

I happen to think that most JW's now waking up would be put off by long discussions on Doctrines they knew or cared little about, rather than Political discussions they can easily avoid if they are not for them. We are all here to help them in practical ways, if they want.